The distribution of tickets has become widespread since the growth of various forms of gambling that rely upon validation of gaming tickets, prime examples being local, state, and national lotteries. Gaming tickets are manufactured and distributed to retail outlets for sale to customers. Because of the strict controls that are imposed by law on the handling and distribution of gaming tickets at all stages of distribution and sale, it is essential that any tickets not sold be counted and then voided or destroyed. These requirements have led to a demand for ways to keep track of the tickets distributed but not sold, since they are typically returned to the distributor or the gaming commission for credit.
In response to a requirement to verify the authenticity of racing tickets, a ticket reader designed to identify a mark on a ticket was developed, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,204,637. The ticket reader disclosed in this patent device detects the presence of a ticket, causing the ticket to be advanced to a reading station where the mark on the ticket is scanned. If the identifying mark scanned from the ticket matches that found in a data base on an associated remote computer, the ticket is identified as valid, and the mark on the ticket is destroyed, using a punch that perforates the ticket. Designed simply to identify and invalidate single tickets fed into it, this device does not provide any mechanism for counting tickets.
In recent years, electronic devices have been developed for counting items, frequently using light sensors to detect the passage of each item past a point and digital circuits to maintain the count. One particular example, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,481,667, uses a light source and corresponding light detector; passage of an item through the device interrupts the light from the source striking the light detector. The signal produced by the light detector is input to an electronic counter, incrementing the count as each item passes the light detector. While such general purpose counters are useful in maintaining a running count of items, they are not designed to efficiently count tickets and do not include any provision for selecting a number of tickets to be counted or for selectively voiding tickets.
Accordingly, it is evident that there is a need in the gaming industry for a device that is designed specifically for electronically counting tickets and selectively voiding tickets as they are counted. In addition to simply counting a stack of tickets, the device preferably should be capable of automatically stopping alter counting a predefined number of tickets.